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Title: The Company You Keep (2012)
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| Cast overview, first billed only: | |||
| Robert Redford | ... | ||
| Shia LaBeouf | ... | ||
| Julie Christie | ... | ||
| Susan Sarandon | ... | ||
| Nick Nolte | ... | ||
| Chris Cooper | ... | ||
| Terrence Howard | ... | ||
| Stanley Tucci | ... | ||
| Richard Jenkins | ... | ||
| Anna Kendrick | ... | ||
| Brendan Gleeson | ... | ||
| Brit Marling | ... | ||
| Sam Elliott | ... | ||
| Stephen Root | ... | ||
| Jackie Evancho | ... |
Isabel Grant
(as Jacqueline Evancho)
|
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After years in hiding, ex-Weather Underground militant, Nick Sloan aka Jim Grant, learns about his old compatriot's arrest for a bank robbery turned deadly in the 1970s, which he is wanted for as an accomplice. This puts the ambitious young local reporter, Ben Shepard, on the scent of a story that exposes Nick as well. As such, Nick goes on the run while taking his daughter to safety. With that accomplished, Nick stays one step ahead of the FBI while pursuing a faint hope to clear his name. Meanwhile, Shepard digs deeper into the case himself as he discovers the true complexities of another times' determined ideals even as Nick faces their consequences with another. Written by Kenneth Chisholm (kchishol@rogers.com)
"When we revolt it's not for a particular culture. We revolt simply because, for many reasons, we can no longer breathe." Frantz Fanon
In Robert Redford's The Company You keep, Jim Grant (Redford) is an attorney on the lam for participating in Weather Underground anti-Vietnam activities over 40 years ago. That a bank robbery resulted in the death of a guard has made the revolutionaries fugitives from murder charges.
This political thriller, in which the FBI has finally zeroed in on the robbers because Sharon Solarz (Susan Sarandon) has decided to turn herself in, devolves into a formulaic chase with helicopters and frantic cell calls, but along the way has some engaging dialogue ("Yeah we all died. Some of us just came back." Donal Fitzgerald, played by Nick Nolte) often given in the repartee style of screwball comedy without the comedy.
I am most surprised at director Redford's political restraint, given his inclination to preach baldly in previous films and in his personal life. The Company You Keep smoothly combines the pacing of a race for survival with the consciousness of a moderate liberal trying to show the unglamorous effects of sins, like excessive ambition and murder, over a lifetime. In its favor the film does not overdo its sympathy for the kids of these radicals, although Brit Marling as Rebecca Osborne would make anyone cry over her, so innocent-looking she is.
While the film tends to emphasize the personal effects on lovers and families to the exclusion of the Weatherman history, it still is instructive about the radical movements decades ago. Although the theme of the ramifications of keeping a secret are parsed by Grant in a too-contrived monologue, the point is well taken, for each secret revealed adds another layer of punishment for all, even children.
If Redford weren't so wrapped up in nostalgia and stuck to the hard-core reasons for some very bright people's stupidity, this could have been a soaring achievement of documenting history in dramatic form. As it is, it's a smart thriller that has some lessons, both political and personal, for all the audience.